10 comments:

I never finished this one but I was glued to what I saw. I did struggle with elements of it. Was it a personal documentary or a social political piece? A really good doc can meld those two things. I wasn't always sure if this doc managed that.

@keith71_98-I think it's some of both as it is from ESPN films where much of the first half is about not just Simpson's disconnect from what African Americans were struggling and questions into why he never reached out to them in a positive way. It also plays into this increase of the sensationalism of news and what sells as it has become the norm unfortunately. I can see why you struggled with it as you probably want it to be all about Simpson. I would too but I feel like all of these stories about race, celebrity culture, and social-politics add a lot more as it play into Simpson's rise and fall.

Yeah, a very detailed look at the man. With only a casual interest in OJ Simpson in the 90s, many of the facts about his life were new to me. The more I watched, the less I liked the guy. However the mini-series is completely engrossing and I couldn’t stop watching. I can now understand why people were fascinated by the trial. For me he's guilty of murder.

@Chris-I took me a few days watching it as I ended up watching I think the 4th part during a late night because I got so engrossed in it as well. I tried to keep my own personal feelings about Simpson himself into whether he's guilty or not. Yet, I couldn't ignore the fact that he was someone who constantly cheated on his wife and was abusing her. Plus, I ask myself "what about his children?" Not just the ones in his first marriage but also in his marriage to Brown? I was quite amused but also disgusted to see him act like a fool in the fifth part before he would go to prison for that robbery.

Do I think he killed his ex-wife and Ron Goldman? Yeah. Out of jealousy and Goldman was just someone at the wrong place and at the wrong time. I know people will disagree with me on this but fuck 'em. In the end, there are no winners. The justice system is fucked and I think it will be a very long time for anyone to believe in it again.

I watched the first two parts, but haven't finished it, yet. I will have some time over the next couple of weeks and plan to do just that. What I saw was amazing and I'm looking forward to the rest of it.

@Wendell-I think it's best to watch the whole thing for a few days as I originally was going to watch it every day but I was sucked into it that it took me less. That is the mark of a good documentary.

@void99: To reply to your comment, I think as with other athletes OJ lost his direction when he stopped as a pro, and fame got the better of him. Another example is Tiger Woods who said he felt entitled and that normal rules didn't apply during his womanizing. If anything good can come out of the OJ documentary, I hope it’s that the way court cases are run is tweaked. They made some mistakes during OJ’s trial. The jury wanted to go home after 9 months so they only deliberated for 3½ hours. The jury was biased to the black community. Their verdict was uneducated and based on emotions rather than facts. A jury should be impartial and they were not. As you say, it’s possible these justice system errors will happen again, which is infuriating. Goldman’s family had the right to be mad.

@Chris-Exactly. Now look at Woods, he's become a shell of his former self that just can't hack it anymore.

As for the justice system, it needs a lot of work. I did serve jury duty where I was an alternate jury in a weapons possession case where I only worked for 2 days. It wasn't an enjoyable experience as I found it very stifling and I think it took an hour for the jury to give their verdict which was guilty as I wasn't surprised by it as I thought the guy was guilty as well. I don't wish that shit on anyone.

I also think the African-American community got bamboozled by the case as it was clear that here's a man that is willing to sell you out for anything like in that robbery thing as that one guy realized how full of shit Simpson is. He wasn't going to jail for that motherfucker. I wouldn't either. I don't give a fuck who he is.